Maryland & Cuba in the News

Before the Cuban Revolution, Maryland’s relationship with the Caribbean island was lots of sugar and spice. Baltimore-based McCormick & Co. and the defunct Baltimore Spice Co. did business there, and when a sugar refinery opened in 1922, a U.S. senator from Maryland called Cuba, with its sugar cane fields, “a suburb of Baltimore.”

Sixty years is a long time to wait for a flight, but the first non-stop between BWI-Marshall and Havana takes off Wednesday. Alex DeMetrick reports it’s more than history-making: it’s potentially money-making.

Yes, we should continue to press for more in terms of rights and freedoms for the Cuban people, for a just settlement of property claims of exiles, etc. But we should leave the choice of the political and economic system to the Cuban people. This will serve our interests in Cuba and the rest of Latin America better and may even help usher in greater freedom and democracy in Cuba.

Sixty years is a long time to wait for a flight, but the first non-stop between BWI-Marshall and Havana takes off Wednesday. This summer, before Cuba raised its flag at its embassy in Washington and before the US raised its flag at its embassy in Havana, word came in the spring that BWI was cleared for flights to Cuba.

As the relationship between the United States and Cuba seems to be getting better, we’re told down the line we may see private investments from the U.S. into Cuba. In the near future [we’re] told a few tourism industries will likely see an impact.